Alexandria and Siwa Oasis: 5 Days from Cairo, on Alexander's Road

This five-day tour follows one of the oldest stories in Egypt. In 331 BC, after founding Alexandria, Alexander the Great made the long journey into the western desert to consult the Oracle of Amun at Siwa, which pronounced him a god. You begin where he did, in Alexandria, and end where he went, in the oasis.

The first day is Alexandria: Pompey's Pillar, the Roman theatre, the catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, with the fort of Qaitbay seen from outside. The next morning you drive west along the Mediterranean to Marsa Matruh, then south across the desert to Siwa, the road that has been the oasis's lifeline since antiquity.

In Siwa you have time. One day is yours, ending with sunset over the salt lake from Fantasy Island. On the next you see Shali, the old salt-and-clay town at the oasis's heart; Gebel al-Mawta, the hill of rock-cut tombs where Siwans took refuge during the fighting of 1916–17; the Temple of the Oracle; and Cleopatra's Spring. In the afternoon a 4×4 takes you into the dunes of the Great Sand Sea to Bir Wahed for sunset and a hot spring. On the fifth day you drive back to Cairo.